UPFRONT: HITS & MISSES
APARTMENT FINANCE TODAY • MARCH 2008
Landlords Have Four Years
to Implement Smoking Ban
The City Council in Calabasas, Calif.,
has voted to require that at least 80
percent of apartment buildings be
permanently designated as nonsmoking
by Jan. 1, 2012. Landlords are
required to submit reports detailing
the number and location of the units
beginning in July.
The law prohibits smoking on all
residents’ balconies, porches, and
patios. Landlords must create designated
smoking areas. Residents who
violate the ordinance could have their
leases terminated. If a landlord
receives two written complaints from
different individuals about a tenant’s
smoking, the tenant may be evicted.
Tara Banister, executive director of
the California Apartment Association’s
Los Angeles chapter, said her organization
reversed its opposition to the
smoking ban. Banister noted that
around 90 percent of units in the city
would experience resident turnover in
the four-year period, making it easier
for landlords to comply.
Enterprise CEO Testifies
Doris Koo, president and CEO of
Enterprise Community Partners, testified
in February before the U.S.
Senate Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs on the
housing crisis and its negative effects
on communities. Koo called on
Congress to invest in stabilizing lowand
moderate-income neighborhoods
that have large numbers of
foreclosed homes.
Koo recommended that foreclosed
properties be put into the hands of
local agencies, nonprofits, and socially
minded entrepreneurs who would
help preserve communities, preventing
the erosion of tax bases and property
values of neighboring homes and
apartment buildings. She outlined a
proposal for a Neighborhood
Stabilization Fund that would be
developed by Enterprise and the
Center for American Progress.
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